An increasingly widespread technique for treating female urinary incontinence is that of sling suspension. Generally, sling suspension procedures involve the placement of a sling member beneath the patient's urethra. The sling member is preferably implanted in the patient's tissue by using an introducer needle to help draw the tissue implant sling into position. Examples of sling suspension procedures and devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,112,344, 5,899,909, 6,273,852 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0015069, each of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety in this application.
Slings have been made from numerous materials, including both synthetic and natural, and are generally in the form of a mesh. A traditional sling procedure involves placing a strip of an implant material (natural tissue or synthetic mesh) under the urethra and securing it to the rectus fascia or other portions of the patient's anatomy with sutures to hold the implant in position during the healing process.
Recently, however, improved techniques have been developed that speed the implant process by reducing the number of incisions made and altering the pathways by which the tissue implant is introduced into the body. These improvements, which employ specialized instrumentation, help to reduce operative time and have made the procedure less invasive. The improved techniques generally require that an implant be joined to an introducer needle. The implant is then inserted into, and pulled through the body. Subsequently, the implant is detached from the introducer needle. One deficiency with existing introducer devices, however, is that they are typically unwieldy, awkward and time consuming to attach and/or detach to an implant to or from an introducer device.
Applicants have recognized that it would be desirable to provide urethral support systems, including various needle configurations and components, to facilitate the introduction of implants into a body and to provide users with quick and easy identification of components during implantation. Applicants have also recognized that it would be desirable to provide packaging for urethral support systems that would convey to the user exactly what components are enclosed and the type of procedure for which the components are best suited. Thus, described herein are embodiments of urethral support systems and methods of use.